Pacifica Beauty, a pioneer in clean beauty, sold a minority stake to private equity firm Brentwood Associates and appointed Nathalie Kristo as its new CEO and board member.
WHO: Founded in 1997, Pacifica is a pioneer of 100% vegan, cruelty-free, clean beauty. The brand’s core value is putting the planet first, protecting animals, and never compromising for people. Pacifica abides by its strict Compassion Standards, which includes over 1,800 ingredients the brand will never use in its formulations. The brand also works to minimize its footprint on the planet by using less packaging, PCR (post-consumer recycled plastic), glass, and/or aluminum. Pacifica is primarily sold in the US through Whole Foods, Ulta Beauty, Target, and other retailers.
WHY: Pacifica founder Brook Harvey-Taylor will now dedicate more time to grow key parts of the business where her passions lie—fueling the brand mission, product development, and content generation. Nathalie Kristo, with more than 20 years of experience building iconic brands and former boss of Huda Beauty, will lead its cross-functional teams operationally and support international expansion.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "For the last 25 years, we have pushed to democratize clean, vegan and more sustainable beauty with our accessible price points. The consumer has never been more ready for our brand than they are today," said founder Brook Harvey-Taylor, who will move to the role of company President. "As we continue to rapidly grow, I am so excited to have Brentwood as our new partner, with their deep bench of talent and capabilities in helping brands scale. With the addition of Nathalie as our CEO, bringing her incredible leadership and experience, I believe we are going to be unstoppable. Nathalie is truly inspirational, and she is aligned with our mission and values. Her global beauty experience and her proven track record will be invaluable as we look to take Pacifica to new heights."
“We are experiencing an important paradigm shift as consumers make more clean, sustainable and compassionate choices," said Nathalie Kristo. "Pacifica has been true to this mission since day one and embodies today's consumer values. I am excited to help amplify this storytelling mission, grow our global community and drive strong growth and expansion for the company, capitalizing on great momentum and strong potential ahead. I am deeply inspired by Brook, the Pacifica team and our passionate, growing community.”
“Nathalie's addition to the team is the first of many impactful decisions to come for Pacifica as it heads into a new year of unparalleled growth," said Steve Moore, Partner at Brentwood Associates. "We have followed Pacifica for nearly five years. Since its inception, the brand has been at the forefront of innovation in clean beauty, and we are excited to help them continue to build on this legacy. We are confident that redefining these internal leadership roles at Pacifica is the first step towards accelerating omnichannel growth at a global scale, and we know we are the right partner to help them do it.”
"We have been thoroughly impressed by the stellar business Brook and Billy have built. Pacifica is a true leader of the accessible clean beauty movement, and we are excited to support the brand by helping to drive greater brand awareness, digital optimization and operational excellence across its global omnichannel platform," said Katherine Mossman, Beauty and Wellness Industry Partner at Brentwood, and former Board Advisor of Credo Beauty and Devacurl.
TRIBE DYNAMICS EMV: Pacifica Beauty netted $7.1MM EMV in Q1, a 31% QoQ improvement fueled by a 29% QoQ community expansion (1.2K creators). While brand advocates who mentioned Pacifica Beauty in both Q4 and Q1drove roughly the same amount of EMV in both quarters, newcomers proved integral to the brand’s success: creators who mentionedPacifica Beauty in Q1 after not doing so in Q4 generated a collective$3.2MM EMV, more than double the $1.5MM driven by Q4 creators who failed to post about the brand in Q1. Despite the general impact of these newcomers, Pacifica Beauty enjoyed heightened output from several important retained creators, including top overall earnersSerena Adelaide (@serenaaide on Instagram) and Cassandra Bankson(@cassandrabankson), who accrued a respective $420.7K and $148.1KEMV, up from their Q4 contributions of $147.3K and $89.8K. BothSerena and Cassandra featured a range of Pacifica Beauty products inorganic makeup tutorials.
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